Portage, Indiana, offering no cost "Halas Harbor" stadium as battle for Bears heats up

The Northwest Indiana community of Portage is joining the battle to get the Chicago Bears to come to their town.

Portage Mayor Austin Bonta announced the bid this week, offering a privately funded stadium that would be called "Halas Harbor". All this, as Gary, Indiana, is offering three potential sites, and Arlington Heights puts pressure on the team with its stadium proposal. 

Mayor Bonta is calling it "the same roar on a different shore," even encouraging Bears fans to get there by boat and go "sail-gating."

He said if the Bears choose to stay in Illinois, the team would be walking away from a lot of money. 

"We have the land, we have the water, we have the location and the local leadership ready to embark on a major development," he said.

Bonta said the proposal is to build a stadium on 300 acres of city-owned land on the north side of the city, with the name being a nod to the Bears' Halas Hall headquarters in Lake Forest. The proposal is for a multi-venue space.

"We see elite hospitality, mixed-use residential," he said.

Portage is now partnering with Chicago-area businessman Lou Weisbach to finance the stadium privately.

Indiana's legislature is working on paving the way for a multi-billion-dollar publicly owned stadium at no cost to the team or the taxpayer

"We have a governor who is determined to get the bears here," Bonta said.

Wolf Lake in Hammond and three different proposed sites are also at play in Gary.

And now Iowa is on the table?

Seven legislators filed a bill this week to expand the state development program to incentivize building an NFL stadium in the state.

As leaders in Arlington Heights fight to keep the Bears in Illinois, a rally is set for Wednesday night to drive home one message:

"While I'm sure Hammond or Gary would love the opportunity to have the Bears ... the Bears belong to Illinois," said Arlington Heights Mayor Jim Tinaglia. "Listen to the song, the pride and joy of Illinois, they are not the pride and joy of Indiana."

The key sticking points in Illinois have been over how the state would help finance the team. Those fighting to keep them in Illinois, the bears are looking for two promises — infrastructure around the stadium and tax certainty.

"Based on how the assessor has approached this, if we don't allow the bears to reach an agreement with the local tax districts, they could be looking at a $200 million tax bill. Nobody is going to pay $200 million to build on that lot," said Ernie Rose with Touchdown Arlington.

"It's going to be up to our Springfield leaders to make sure it doesn't happen," Tinaglia said.

Leaders in Indiana said the state is moving quickly to get the go-ahead from legislative to move forward, with the session ending in just a few weeks.